How to Dual Boot Windows 11/10 along with Windows 8 or 7?

Updated by

Tracy King 

Last updated on May 10, 2024

Most computers come with only one operating system pre-installed, but you can install more than one on the same device. Installing two operating systems on the same device and choosing which one to boot into is called "dual-booting." If you want to try out Windows 11 or 10 without giving up your current installation of Windows 8 or 7, you can set up dual-booting on your computer. This article will show you how.

Continue reading to learn more about how to dual-boot Windows 11/10 along with Windows 8 or 7.

How to Install a Dual Boot Windows on Your Computer

When setting up a dual-boot on your computer, it's best to install different systems on separate partitions. If you don't have an external hard drive, you can create a partition for Windows installation on your PC. In this article, we'll first show you how to create a partition on the hard drive and then demonstrate how to install Windows 11/10 on the newly created partition.

Part 1: Creating a Partition for the Windows 11/10 Installation

The easiest and safest way to dual-boot is to buy and install a new hard drive in your computer, and then install the new operating system on it. But if you have a large enough hard drive, you can also repartition it to make room for the new Windows installation.

For convenience, we recommend you to choose the free partition tool Partition Master to repartition Windows 8 or 7 hard drive.

AOMEI Partition Assistant is a professional partition management tool that enables users to create, resize, clone, move, merge, and format partitions. Trusted by over 10 million users for 17 years, it runs smoothly on Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/XP.

Download Partition Master Free and follow the instructions below to create a dual-boot partition.

Step 1. Launch Partition Master. Right-click on the “Unallocated” space on the hard drive or external storage device from the main interface and choose “Create”.

Step 2. Adjust the size, file system (select the file system as needed), and label for the new partition, then click “OK” to continue.

Step 3. Click the Run 1 Task button, and then click Apply to create the new partition.

Watch the following video tutorial to learn how to create partitions on an NTFS, FAT, or EXT file system.

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The partitioning tool will make the changes and create Partition F to install Windows 11/10.

Part 2: Install Windows 11/10 on the new partition

With the new partition in place, it's time for the easy part: installing Windows 11/10 on it. Insert the Windows 10 installation DVD and reboot your computer (you'll need to enable booting from the DVD drive in your system BIOS).

Step 1. Click on Install Now.

Step 2. The installation should start automatically. When prompted to choose an installation type, make sure you select "Custom (advanced)".

Select “Advanced mode”

< strong > Step 3. Be careful here. Selecting the wrong partition will erase your other Windows installation entirely. Make sure you select the new partition you created for the Windows 11/10 install in Step 1. Select Partition F to proceed.

Select the partition where you want to install Windows 10, as shown:

Step 4. After a couple of reboots, you'll be prompted to set up your account, enter your license key, and configure Windows.

Step 5: Congratulations! Now, when you restart your computer for the first time, you should see a new entry in the boot screen for Windows 11/10. You now have all the tools you need to install a dual-boot (Windows 11/10 and Windows 8 or 7) or even a triple-boot (Windows 11/10, 8, and 7) system!

Step 6. When your computer starts, choose which operating system to use: Windows 11/10 or Windows 7 or 8.

Click on "Change default or choose other options" to change these settings. Here, you can choose which version of Windows to boot by default and how long the operating system selection menu is displayed before automatically booting the default Windows version.

More to read: Boot Windows from SD Card

**Dual Boot Software Recommendations** When searching for software to enable dual booting on your computer, consider the following options: 1. **GRUB** (Grand Unified Bootloader): An open-source bootloader widely used in Linux systems, allowing easy switching between multiple operating systems. 2. **Boot Camp** (Mac only): An official Apple tool that enables Mac users to install and dual boot Windows. 3. **rEFInd**: A boot manager that automatically detects and displays available boot options, including Windows, Linux, and other OSs. 4. **EasyBCD**: A Windows utility for managing and configuring the Windows bootloader, supporting the creation of a dual-boot menu. 5. **systemd-boot**: A simple and modern bootloader for Linux systems, previously known as gummiboot. 6. **MultiBootUSB**: This tool lets you create bootable USB drives with multiple Linux distributions, facilitating dual booting from a USB device. Choose the appropriate software based on your specific requirements and operating system. Before installing or configuring these tools, make sure to back up important data, as incorrect operations can result in data loss.

Aside from setting up a dual-boot manually, there are several third-party tools that can help you install multiple operating systems. One of the most popular is EasyBCD.

EasyBCD is a program developed by NeoSmart Technologies for configuring and modifying the BCD (Boot Configuration Data). It can be used to set up a multiboot environment on computers running Windows, Linux, BSD, and Mac OS X. For more detailed information about EasyBCD, visit its official website.

Conclusions

As you can see, when you dual-boot Windows 11/10 and Windows 8/7, the Free Partition Master tool is your good helper. But the Tool Partition Master can do much more than that. For example, when the C drive runs out of space, the Tool Partition Master can help you extend the C drive in a few clicks. Whether you are a beginner or an expert, you can handle partition management effortlessly with this tool.